Know someone who seems congenitally incapable of driving? A new study suggests that a genetic variant may, in fact, be responsible for poor driving skills — and it's a variant nearly one third of Americans possess.

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A study at the University of California at Irvine studied the affect of a certain variant of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene on driving. The gene supports communication in the brain cells and is associated with keeping memory strong. For people with a certain variant of the BDNF gene, this process works less than optimally, and those people are less likely to recover from a stroke. Roughly 30 percent of Americans possess that less optimal variant.

The researchers had 29 participants, 22 without the less optimal variant of the gene and seven with it, take a simulated driving test. In the simulator, participants had to loop a track and gradually learn its nuances. They then had them drive the same simulated track days later. Participants with the gene variant performed worse on the driving test; they did not stay on the course as well as the participants and remembered less about the track during the second test.

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But even if this genetic variant does make you a worse driver, it has certain advantages. Some studies have found that people with the variant retain greater mental sharpness when faced with neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, Huntington's and multiple sclerosis.